


Stuck

by LokianaWinchester



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Academy Era, M/M, Pre-Slash, Starfleet Academy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-10
Updated: 2018-10-10
Packaged: 2019-07-29 01:19:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16253708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LokianaWinchester/pseuds/LokianaWinchester
Summary: Kirk is stuck in a tree and nearly gives Spock a heart attack, when he is walking home one night.Written for the following prompt:"My friends and I decided to go climbing the trees around campus. At night. They thought I left early, but I got stuck and please, please help… you’re the first person I’ve seen in hours and I really hate heights now"





	Stuck

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is my first Spirk fic, and I haven't even read one in like over a year, so I hope it makes sense :))

The date had not gone well. Spock was not sure what exactly had gone wrong exactly, but he assumed, it was a mix of both of them trying too hard.

Spock had had high hopes for this date with Nyota Uhura. Uhura was not only pleasing to the eye, but also clever, an excellent student and supposedly a great companion, but somehow the whole evening had been awkward and Spock had not felt good throughout.

Now, he was heading home to his flat on campus. He was well aware that Uhura would be heading into the same direction, so he had taken a little detour, that had turned into an hour long walk. He was so concentrated on analysing his mistakes in the conversation, his behaviour, as well as that of Uhura, that he did not notice the shouting until it came from directly above him. Above?

Startled, Spock looked up into the tree along the path that led into the Academy’s campus between the instructors’ buildings. He saw nothing. Everything was quiet again, so Spock continued on his way home. It was getting close to 2 AM now, not a time of day he liked spending awake, let alone outside in the increasingly chilly temperature.

“Hey!” Spock nearly jumped. He had not been wrong after all; somebody was indeed shouting from somewhere above him.

“Over here!”

The voice did not come from the trees next to the path, but from somewhere further back, where it was harder to even make out the outlines of trees in the darkness.

“Who is this?” Spock asked, carefully. He was not sure himself, why he was doing this. Why he was inquiring after the voice that came from the woods at 2 AM. It was not rational, it was not logical, and yet, Spock could not fight the urge to.

“Oh thank you!” came the reply, no answer to his question really, but it did not sound like the man had any ill intentions.

Spock carefully stepped between the trees.

“I need help,” the voice shouted from about fifty metres ahead. Spock slightly picked up his pace, navigating among the trees.

“Stop, stop, I’m over here!” It came from his left; Spock turned, looked up, and saw a leg dangling over a branch. The foot was clad only in a sock. Perplexed, Spock looked down to see the fitting shoe.

“Oh thank god you’re here! Can you please help me down? Even if you just tell me where I can put my feet?”

Spock nodded, before he realised that the man could probably not see him from the angle he was stuck at and the darkness on top of that.

“Yes,” he replied. “Beneath your right leg, less than five inches below your foot, there is a sturdy branch. Try to step on it.” He paused for a moment, watching the body shift and leg extend towards the branch. “Why are you in a tree?” Spock dared to ask. He figured, if he was already helping he had the right to know about the situation.

“I was… my friends and I were going on and on about climbing these trees for like a year now,” the man said. “Every time we walked back onto the campus here, we’d say how climbable these trees looked and today when we came back from the pub, we decided to do it!” The man had placed his foot on the branch. “And now?”

Spock looked at the weird angle, in which the man was stuck now. Even the body part closest to him, that shoe-less foot, was over two metres above him still.

“You need to let go off the trunk.” Spock saw that the man needed to get around the branch that seemed to be pressing into his lower back, making him twist into this uncomfortable position.

“No. No, no, no!” The voice came from above. He sounded panicked, afraid almost.

“Yes,” Spock replied firmly.

“No, I’m… I’ve never been afraid of heights but if I feel like I’m literally gonna pass out if I let go off this tree.”

“Then, how else do you propose you get down?” Spock asked. He was not in the mood for this. He was cold, he needed to meditate and then sleep, prepare for tomorrow’s classes, and instead he was helping a seemingly unwilling man stuck in a tree.

“Fuck,” the latter muttered. “Fucking unbelievable. I’ll never do anything Gaila says ever again.”

Spock was just about to open his mouth in another attempt to convince the man to move, when he saw him twisting around the branch, one hand still desperately clinging to the trunk, while the other frantically waved around before he found hold.

“Why did your friends not help you?” Spock asked.

“They thought I was already home,” the man said. “Thought I left early and I didn’t wanna seem stupid and I thought I could get down alone.”

“Your right foot can step on a branch now, directly beneath where it is now. Half a metre lower,” Spock said. “And you are a cadet?” he continued.

In the following minutes, the man continued to swear at his absent friends, confirmed that he was indeed a cadet at Starfleet Academy and cursed some more, mostly at his newly found fear of heights.

When he was mere inches above Spock, he stepped on a branch, more secure now that he was closer to the ground, but what neither of them could have known, was that the branch was rotten and brittle, promptly cracking underneath his weight.

The cadet had put all his weight on that foot and proceeded to desperately try holding onto the tree, however unsuccessfully. At the last second, Spock extended his arms, took a step forward and caught the falling cadet.

“You caught me?” promptly came the question. “Wow, you’re strong,” the cadet continued, before opening his eyes. Even in the darkness, Spock saw their bright blue colour that was like none he had seen before.

“I’m –” was all Spock managed before the cadet cut him off.

“Shit, oh my God, you’re Spock! Uh, Professor Spock, I mean. I’m sorry I…”

“You know me?” Spock asked, even though it was obvious that this was the case.

“Of course I know you! You’re like the hottest –” The cadet stopped abruptly. His cheeks darkened and he looked away, eyes wide, almost terrified.

“I’m sorry,” he mumbled. “Can you put me down now?” He twisted in Spock’s arms as if to make his point clear.

_Admiration. Embarrassment. Excitement._

The emotions hit Spock, before he knew what was happening. With a gasp, he pulled back his hands, inadvertently letting the cadet fall to the ground.

“Ouch! I didn’t mean like that! Why…” The cadet rubbed his neck and sat up, but stopped talking when he looked at Spock. Spock blinked once, noticing his expression was not nearly as controlled as it usually was. He was still staring at his hands, to be exact, the one finger on his left hand, that had just barely brushed the bare skin at Kirk’s arm; the one finger that had initiated the touch that had flooded him with the cadet’s emotions.

“Are you okay?” The cadet asked. Then he looked back down, reached for his second shoe and put it on.

“I am,” Spock replied. “Cadet…?” The man in question just stared at him for a second, before recognition lit up his face.

“Oh, you’re asking my name! Kirk. Jim Kirk,” he said with a grin. “I better head home, though. Gotta get some sleep before classes start tomorrow… or today, really.” With those words he scrambled to his feet.

“Very well, Cadet Kirk,” Spock said and nodded. He should be home himself, he noticed once again. By now, he was uncomfortably cold, and he really needed to meditate on what had just happened.

“Uh, thanks,” Kirk said when he was standing in front of Spock. “For helping me. And catching me.”

Spock nodded once. Opened his mouth to reply, but Kirk was already speaking again.

“I’d love to see you again. Sometime. When I’m not stuck in a tree. Not that I’m planning to get stuck in a tree ever again. But you know.” Spock raised an eyebrow. He fought down the urge to smile at Kirk’s babbling.

“Okay I’ll go now, night, Spock. Uhh, I mean Professor Spock.” He met Spock’s eyes for a second. “Bye!”

Then Kirk turned around and left through the trees.

Spock looked after him for a moment, before he turned to leave as well. He was just about to make his way back, when something shimmered in the corner of his vision and he looked back. Leaning against the trunk of the tree next to the one Kirk had been stuck on, was a bag. Spock picked it up, peered inside. A PADD, a set of keys, some snacks.

He tapped the PADD.

**Welcome back, James Kirk.**

Spock sighed. Whether intentionally or not, Kirk had indeed opened up an opportunity for them to meet again.

And Spock could not say he particularly disliked the thought.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! I hope you liked it; if so, feel free to leave me kudos and/or comments! They give me life <3


End file.
